A 27-year-old mother of four has pleaded guilty to killing her estranged husband.

Kevin Sean Patrick Doyle died from a single stab wound to the chest on September 27, 2008.

During previous court appearances it had been alleged that his wife had thrown a knife at him after finding text messages from another woman on his phone.

Roisin Doyle, from Henderson Avenue in Belfast, had been due to go on trial at Craigavon Crown Court charged with his murder yesterday.

However, defence QC Elis McDermott asked that she be rearraigned on the murder charge.

When the charge was put to her again, Mrs Doyle, flanked by her solicitor, again pleaded not guilty to her husband's murder, but guilty to his manslaughter.

Prosecutor Gordon Kerr QC, who gave no details surrounding the circumstances of the fatal stabbing, said that the guilty plea to the manslaughter was acceptable to the Crown.

Mr Doyle was stabbed at a house in the Summerhill Grange area of Twinbrook. He was taken to hospital but died later from his injuries.

During a previous hearing in 2008 Lisburn Magistrates Court was told that Roisin Doyle had arrived at her home to find Mr Doyle asleep on the sofa. Mrs Doyle took his mobile phone and found messages from another woman on it, the court heard.

After seeing the texts, she told police she then took a kitchen knife, cut her wrist and then threw the knife into the living room where Mr Doyle was.

A PSNI detective said a pathologist believed the chest wound which caused Mr Doyle's death had been caused by moderate force not in keeping with the knife having been thrown.

Mrs Doyle will be sentenced next month in Belfast when social inquiry reports on her and her family are completed.